Ten minutes of mindfulness, and a narrower promise
A short experiment separates a change in reported mindfulness from improvement on cognitive tasks.
An October 26 Scienmag report revisits research first published on September 3 in BMC Psychology. Participants were randomly assigned to a ten-minute mindfulness exercise or an audiobook. The exercise increased reported state mindfulness, but it did not improve executive functioning or reduce mind-wandering overall.
A useful limit on a familiar promise
The researchers also explored whether mood and other individual differences changed the results. A signal involving negative mood and inhibitory control was exploratory, rather than a settled finding. The study concerns one brief exercise and immediate tests. It does not establish what repeated practice might do. For teachers, the distinction is useful: feeling more mindful and performing better on a cognitive task are different outcomes, and one should not be promised as proof of the other.
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